Raniere’s group, which claims to “empower people and answer important questions about what it means to be human,” has operated for about 20 years and has centers in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Central America.

“Keith Raniere created a secret society of women whom he had sex with and branded with his initials, coercing them with the threat of releasing their highly personal information and taking their assets,” U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue said in a statement.

FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William Sweeney Jr. said Raniere “displayed a disgusting abuse of power in his efforts to denigrate and manipulate women he considered his sex slaves” and “allegedly participated in horrifying acts of branding and burning them, with the cooperation of other women operating within this unorthodox pyramid scheme.”

The organization, which gets most of its funding from the sisters who are the heiresses to the Seagrams family liquor fortune, charges up to $5,000 for a five-day workshop.